Pancake breakfast on the bay!
by steamtug on Feb.16, 2011, under General
While reading the paper the other day, I noticed a cruise ship would be visiting Geelong early on Sunday morning, and thought it would be an ideal opportunity to get the crew together for a pancake breakfast on the bay. We have almost finished the worst summer I can remember with only one hot day this year, but Sunday morning looked fantastic!
The ship was arriving at 7am so getting out of bed at 6am I planned to go on the computer and look where she was. But before I could log on, Anita was calling out from the upstairs balcony saying “I think that is it!” as we could see the string of lights across her tops as she approached Geelong.
6.30am was the meeting time for the crew and we arrived just in time to find nobody there! They were all too sleepy!!! Trusty Adaqua fired up first time with the new batteries I had just installed, and we headed out, followed her in and dropped anchor nearby to cook up our pancake breakfast. She only stayed for one hour to drop off passengers who were doing a tour of the “Great Ocean Road” before heading back out of our bay for Melbourne, a few hours up the bay from us. Sorry to all who missed out, the scenery was great and the pancakes delicious!
My son the pilot!
My Christmas gift from Mitch was a little different this year. He recently passed his exams to be a full pilot, and for Christmas this year, he gave us a fly around Port Phillip Bay. It was such a good idea, my brother and I gave this present to my Dad for his birthday recently.
We left the third busiest airport (by aircraft movements) in Australia “Moorabbin” with little planes buzzing around like mosquitoes. The flight took us across the city of Melbourne, across all the container docks, down to Avalon airport, past the You Yangs, over the Ford motor company proving ground then left over Geelong, down to Anglesea on the surf coast, back past Torquay, to Port Phillip Heads, across the Mornington Peninsula past Phillip Island, French Island and landed at Tooradin airport for lunch. Then a quick flight back to Moorabin. It was two hours in the air which costs a small fortune.
If anybody would like to do this trip, Mitch will take two passengers for $100 each. This sounds expensive, but compared to a four minute helicopter flight on Geelong’s waterfront for $45, it’s a great day out. Also the two passengers only pay for 50% of the plane hire for the two hours, so you are still in front, and Mitch gets the hours in his log book. It’s such an expensive hobby!!!
Cross Country Flight
Mitch was keen yesterday to try out his navigating skills, and as I was not working he took me on a joy flight to Cobden down in the Western District. We headed out of Moorabbin, over Geelong and Colac. Some low clouds forced us to drop down from 4,000 feet to 3,000 and experience a bit of rough turbulance until it passed. But with a tail wind we were cruising at 119 knots. Not bad eh?
My farmer mate Niel met us there as his farm is nearby and took us into Cobden for lunch. We were worried about keeping him from his farm work, but he told us he was in town anyway, and extra happy because he had just sold a truck load of his cattle for a higher price than he expected to get. But I still couldn’t let him buy the lunch.
Flying back, we had a thunderstorm following us so we were keen to make good time. But with the wind now as a head wind, we were only making 85 knots. I suggested to Mitch if the wind would be less higher up. So we gained some altitude to 5,000 feet and our speed increased to 105 knots for our trip back. Another 2.5 hours in the log book, and we didn’t even get lost. It was great to follow the chart looking at all the lakes, towns, railway lines and know where you are.
Looking forward to the next time he invites me. And don’t forget to let Mitch know if you want to take up the offer of a lap of Port Phillip Bay. It would be a great present for someone, or for overseas visitors looking for something to do. Seeya!
